


Closer or, Six Times Loki Slept With the Avengers and One Time He Didn't

by feverbeats



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-01
Updated: 2012-10-01
Packaged: 2017-11-15 09:43:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feverbeats/pseuds/feverbeats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I can be a great many things. Enough to appeal to everyone. Surely you're not the only one weak enough to give in."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closer or, Six Times Loki Slept With the Avengers and One Time He Didn't

**Author's Note:**

> More thorough warnings: Dubcon, transphobia, homophobia, incest, discussion of rape.
> 
> Title from Nine Inch Nails, obvs.
> 
> MY WHOLE EXISTENCE IS FLAWED / YOU GET ME CLOSER TO GOD

Nick's been checking in on Loki pretty regularly. Idle hands, and all that. Besides, he has to keep coming back to unravel the mystery of what Loki wants.

This time, Loki is pacing back and forth when Nick comes in. _Tap, tap._ He walks so lightly for someone in boots. "Nick Fury, do you know what you are?" he asks.

"Yeah, actually, I do," Nick says. "They're exactly what I need and exactly what you can't handle. Any more questions?"

Loki watches him, eyes hooded. "Yes. Do you want to make a deal?"

Nick didn't expect that. "You don't look to me like someone who's in the position to be offering deals," he says, eyebrow raised.

"Open the door," Loki says. He waits, watches Nick waiting, then says, "What do you think I'll give you if you touch me?"

"Excuse me?" Nick says before he can stop himself from being surprised.

"I want you," Loki says. He's clothed from neck to boot-tip and Nick's never seen anyone look so naked. "In exchange, I'll give you a story. Does that sound fair?"

Nick thinks about old gods and sacrifice. There's a system here, it's just not one he's familiar with. Unusual prisoners call for unusual methods.

"Will the story be worth it?" he asks.

Loki tilts his head, catlike. "Am I really so bad? Is it really such a high price to pay?"

"Right," Nick says, "and the price I pay isn't going to be higher than that, by any chance, is it? If you're close enough to fuck me, you're close enough to kill me."

Loki tilts his head and smiles. "Do you truly believe I couldn't have killed you and all of your men in Germany? In the halls of your ship? Anywhere in between?"

"I want to know what you're getting out of this," Nick says, his fears not entirely assuaged. "What you're _really_ getting."

Loki looks around the room furtively. As if someone's listening. "Isn't it obvious?"

Nick spreads his arms. "I'm a simple man."

"So let me complicate you." 

"I think there's a song about that," Nick says.

Loki smiles like someone who hasn't gotten the joke, but knows there is one. "Nick Fury, if you come to me, I'll tell you why I wanted it."

~

Afterward, Nick doesn't have much getting dressed to do, but he does up the zippers and buttons as soon as he can.

"Your team," Loki says, "is made of monsters."

Nick smiles grimly. The sweat is still cooling on his skin, and he's so angry at himself. "Oh, good," he says. He's a little annoyed that Loki seems to know Nick's been thinking of them as a _team_ already.

"I can see their teeth shining in the dark," Loki continues. He rolls away from Nick, and by the time he's on his feet, his robes have materialized on his body.

Nick tilts his head and watches Loki. He knows, or thinks he knows, exactly when and where each of the new recruits will show his or her true colors. He's putting a lot of faith in them, but he doesn't think he's wrong.

"I'm not too worried about that," he says.

Loki stops, and his eyes flash. He looks ill. "You should be," he snaps. "Do you know what they've been doing behind your back? Did you know that each one of your precious team has given in to me?"

Nick raises his eyebrows. "Give in? In what sense?"

The edge of Loki's mouth twists unpleasantly. "I can be a great many things. Enough to appeal to everyone. Surely you're not the only one weak enough to give in."

"You're lying to me," Nick says, striding forward until he's face to face with Loki. "I'm one hundred percent on that. I trust them."

Loki goes a shade paler. "Lying?"

"I hear you're the god of it," Nick says.

Loki laughs viciously. "I am. But not when the truth hurts more. Every one of them, Nick Fury."

Nick grits his teeth and tries not to imagine. "Oh yeah? So if you did all that, why aren't you free?"

Loki just smiles. "First," he says, "was Rogers."

~

"I see you've already become alienated by your new-found companions," Loki says when Steve steps into his room. "But after all, you are alien. Walking the surface of the wrong world."

Steve frowns. "No, that's not it," he says. "I just thought I'd get a look at what we're up against."

"And what are you _up against_? Loki hisses.

Steve doesn't flinch. "They say you're a god," he says, "but you just look like another crazy person to me."

Loki is silent for a long moment as they watch one another. Then he says, "Crazy. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it? It's so _easy_ , with you people. You all know what kind of freaks you are, so you write it all over your faces. Thank you."

"I don't know what you mean," Steve says evenly. But he's not happy. He didn't expect this.

"They used to make places for people like you, in your time," Loki says.

Steve knows Loki isn't psychic. Thor would definitely have mentioned that. He also knows that there's no way Hawkeye could have filled Loki in on this. Then again, Fury's a familiar name. If Jack passed down stories about Steve to his grandson, Hawkeye had a look at Fury's files, Loki asked Hawkeye . . . Or maybe Loki's right and it's just easy to see.

"I thought so," Loki says softly, almost compassionately. "Diseased. What a pity. No one will ever want you, you know. Not even in this time and place."

Steve swallows and sets and his jaw and says, "That's not your business. I want to know what you're doing here."

"I'm here because you caught me, of course," Loki says, laughing. He stops abruptly. "Is it Stark Is he the one you've taken a fancy to? Or is it my dear brother? Or simply all of those well-muscled heroes in their revealing outfits."

"Don't," Steve chokes out. He can tell he's completely red and flustered, but he can't--he didn't prepare for this. No one is supposed to know. _He_ barely knows. "I wouldn't look at my teammates like that," he manages.

Loki sighs. "No matter. If you haven't, now you will. And then they'll call you a freak, no matter how many terrible things they've done. At least they're not _sick_." He presses himself up against the glass, watching Steve hungrily. "No one, Rogers. No one in this world. It isn't war anymore. You can't get away with it."

Steve takes a few steps back. "I think," he says, keeping his voice even, "that's enough of that."

"But I'll let you get away with it."

Steve stops.

Loki doesn't even smile, he just watches Steve. Like Steve is prey. "I know what it's like. Being an outcast because of what you want. Who you want. I could probably teach you a thing or two. Don't you want to be able to fuck someone who isn't . . ." Loki does smile now. "Who isn't an underage boy?"

"How do I open this cage?" Steve asks.

~

"It was practically a record," Loki snarls. "I've never met anyone with so much self-loathing. I thought he, out of all of them, was going to be _difficult_. He wanted to wring my neck, you know. But he barely got his hands on me before he was tearing my clothes off."

Fury watches him impassively. "Why?" he asks after a moment. "Why go through all that trouble just to seduce him?"

"Because I'm _bored_ " Loki spits. "And I deeply enjoy the process of poisoning your team. Tainting them with _me_."

"I kind of doubt you enjoy anything much at all," Fury says.

"You're wrong," Loki says. "I enjoyed him. He held me down against the floor and took me with no preparation. He was vicious. I loved it. But I think Hawkeye may have been better."

Fury winces. "Spare me."

"No."

~

Clint doesn't know how long he's been working without a break, but it doesn't seem to matter. Whatever blue, brilliant power is pounding out of his heart and keeping him on track doesn't allow for many outside concerns.

Except that Loki keeps trying to have conversations with him.

Today, Loki looks less worried and more regal. She's also a woman. He's noticed, vaguely, that she does that sometimes, although never around Selvig. He doesn't wonder what it means because it's not related to the mission.

He's clear-headed, though, when she lays a hand on his arm.

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" she asks. Her voice drips disdain, and he's not sure who it's directed at.

"Sure," Clint says. She is.

"I chose you because you're special," she says. She glances around the makeshift lab. "Does that surprise you? You're one of the only humans in a world of gods. I don't just mean my brother and me, but all of them. The ones we're fighting. Even Miss Romanov is older than she has any right to be. They're not human."

Clint really wishes he hadn't told her so much. "Mm," he says.

Loki leans in close and whispers, "She's never going to want a thing like you. She wants to escape her old life, not go crawling back."

Clint doesn't answer. Some important thought is trying to make itself known, but it's not as important as thinking about his next target.

"I could look like her," Loki says. "You think a witch like me can't use illusory magic?"

"No thanks," Clint says distantly. He feels like he should be a little more worried, or a little more angry, but he can't think.

Loki shrugs and one shoulder of her robe slips off. "Then I could simply look like me. It's better to be with someone who looks at you, isn't it? Someone you _know_ doesn't care about you at all?"

Clint looks at her, and past her. "Yeah," he says, "it probably is."

~

Nick tries very hard not to ask where Clint is now. Loki won't tell him. "So," he says, "you raped him. He was under your control and you forced him."

Loki recoils, his face twisting. "Oh yes, that's exactly the sort of monster I am. I'm glad you know me so well, Nick Fury. He enjoyed himself, anyway, buried inside me. He didn't fuck me as hard as you or Captain America, but he made these fantastic little noises. And he was polite enough to pull out."

Nick grimaces. "Okay. So, you've got me hooked."

Loki's eyes flash. "Natasha," he says. "Do you want to know how I had Natasha?"

~

Natasha comes to Loki a few times, mostly just to watch. He tries to talk to her, but she doesn't talk back. He's just cataloging some truly nasty things to say (complete with all the words they ever called him) when she looks right at him and says, "Go."

"Pardon?"

"Go," she says, shrugging. "I know you have things to say to me. Say them."

Loki smiles slowly, half unsure. "This time you'll touch me," he says. "Next time I'll tell you about Barton."

Natasha laughs, shaking her head. "Touch you? Do you think I'm that bored, or that desperate?"

"I think you will be," Loki hisses, as if a switch has been flipped. "I think you'll come to me when you realize there's no forgiving what you've done, Agent Romanoff. You've lied and murdered and turned traitor. Barton will never want a thing like you."

Natasha shrugs and steps closer to the glass, hiding any hint of reaction that threatens to show itself at Clint's name. "You think I want that?"

"I think you want someone," Loki says. "I know people like you. You're vicious, but you _need_. I know wolves."

Natasha hisses through her teeth. "You insult me," she says, her real accent saturating her voice.

"But my Fenrir is chained," Loki says, as if to himself. "All alone on a little island. All he did was bite off someone's hand. What have _you_ done?"

Natasha knows he's lying, or at least leaving things out. That's not how the story goes.

"You think I'm ashamed of it?" she asks. "Of being a wolf?"

"I do," Loki says. "What else could you possible feel but shame? And who else could you possibly come to who would not shame you further? I won't even make a sound."

"You promise?" Natasha asks.

~

"Did you make a sound?" Fury asks, after a pause long enough that he gathers the story is over.

"I'm bad at silence," Loki says.

"I can tell. So tell me you've got a story about fucking your brother. Because I'd love to hear that."

Loki's face twists and changes into something ugly, almost animal. "I have a story. You won't like it. But at least he was gentler than Romanoff."

~

"Brother."

Loki sneers. "Brother," he echoes. "I have never been that to you, Thor. I told you once. I will not tell you again." He raises his eyebrows and moves as if to pace, but stops, refusing to turn from Thor.

Thor sighs. He should not have come here. Fury was insistent, though, demanding things of Thor that no one should be willing to do to family. "What shall I call you, then?" Thor asks.

Loki's laugh sounds pained. "You ask me years too late." Without elaborating, he continues, "Do you know what you've managed to miss, Odinson?"

Thor regards Loki grimly. This is the person he's supposed to torture? Even coming into the room feels like a betrayal of him. "Tell me, then."

Loki laughs. "I slept with them. All of them. There's only you, know, untainted by my touch."

Thor pauses, thrown. "What, you mean--? Do you mean Balder? Tyr?"

This time Loki's laugh is a startled, flat thing. "What--? No. No, fool, the humans. Your new friends."

Thor isn't sure if that's a relief or not. "You're lying," he says dubiously. But they're all so odd that he could never tell.

"It would be nice," Loki says casually, backing up now, "if I could have the complete set. Why not? You're not my brother."

Thor recoils, not so much from the idea of touching Loki (that's irrelevant) as from the idea that Loki is this and only this, now.

"I'll never want you," Loki says with false casualness. "Not in any way but this. Your precious little brother never existed. Do you want to touch me? Very well, but not as a brother. If you want me, you have to want this."

Thor looks at him, this creature in the place of his brother. He wants nothing more than to step into the cage and hold him.

"Loki is gone," Loki says. "Loki has burned. Fuck me, or forget me."

~

Fury sighs. "So I'm guessing he didn't interrogate you like I asked him to." That's a letdown. Thor just came back from his meeting with Loki wearing his big, sad puppy eyes and not talking much.

"It was like torture," Loki sneers, his expression shifting over and over until Fury has no idea what he's feeling. "He was pathetic. For once, it was him." He brightens, or seems to. He only just darkened.

"So you want to be here." Fury crosses his arms. "Okay, so we all guessed that. You know, I could analyze the security footage. Try to figure out the common denominator. I'll find out what you want."

Loki laughs, the sound rising until it fills the room. "Oh, please, feel free. But shall I tell you what you'll find? It gets worse. Stark was next, you see."

~

"Okay," Tony says, "I don't know what you've been doing, but you've upset a lot of my colleagues." He says it with a straight face, even. Colleagues.

Loki smiles. "I wondered how long it would take for you to make your way here." He looks Tony up and down. "Where do I even _begin_?" he asks. "Everything is wrong with you."

Tony crosses his arms over his chest. That's what Steve said. Some bullshit about Loki talking them down. He's spent his whole life getting this from tabloids; he's pretty sure he can handle it from a prisoner.

"You don't _look_ like a monster, Mr. Stark," Loki says lightly, "but underneath, oh, i think we both know that's a different matter."

"Are you always this obvious?" Tony asks. "It's a little embarrassing, honestly." 

Loki pauses for a fraction of a second. "Obvious? No. That's the last thing I am. But you'd know all about that." 

"I don't--"

"Don't _lie_ ," Loki spits. "You're so bad at it." Then he smiles. "Because you know. We're both good at playing powerful men. But even this we stole."

Tony, even though he was prepared for nastiness, isn't breathing right. The fact that it's familiar makes it worse.

"Believe me," Loki says, "I know how badly you need for it to work with your new allies. It's all you have left. Your last shot." He stops. "He's never going to want you."

"What?" Tony asks, derailed. That's a piece of drama he didn't expect Loki to have picked up on. He thought he'd been very quiet about it. Subtle, for once.

Loki laughs, pleased. "Oh, we can all tell. I'm sure he's the only one who hasn't picked up on it. You do realize you'd be insane to try anything, don't you? You can offer him _so much_ , I'm sure. He's probably just dying to hop into bed with a physically defective, morally bankrupt, aging freak."

 _Boom boom boom_ , Loki hits every weak point Tony has.

Then he looks Tony right in the eye.

"You must know I'm the only living thing on this ship that won't laugh or scream when it gets your clothes off. Give up on Rogers. Let me touch you."

~

"He made a lot of noise," Loki says softly. "I had him on his hands and knees, and he was loud. He called me by a lot of names that weren't mine. But no matter! He was nothing compared to the good doctor."

Nick _knows_ he would have heard about it if Loki fucked Bruce. Bruce doesn't fuck.

Loki, as if reading his mind, says, "Do you really think my magic couldn't keep the monster at bay? You'd be surprised how much control I have over it, in fact. Surprised and probably alarmed."

Nick's listening. "I'm listening," he says.

"Then listen to how Bruce Banner fucked me," Loki says, smiling.

~

Bruce really, really doesn't want to go to Loki's cell. He wants to stay the hell away from Loki until that crawling feeling along his spine goes away. But he can't find anyone else (they all keep disappearing) and he's too tense for his liking.

Besides, he thinks the other half of him wants to go there. And it's only fair to give him what he wants sometimes.

"Doctor Banner," Loki begins, as soon as Bruce comes into the room, a smile hovering on his lips.

"Don't," Bruce says. "Don't start. I know what you want, and it isn't me."

Loki grins, wide and manic. "You're right. It isn't. Why don't you just do it now? Unleash the beast."

"I don't think you want that," Bruce says slowly, although hell, what does he know? Maybe Loki does. Although if he _unleashes the beast_ right now, the only person getting hurt will be Loki.

Loki laughs. "No. Does anyone? They all know. You can see it when they look at you. They don't even see you; they just see what's underneath. Don't you know you're a fucking monster? Don't you know that's all your are?" By the end, his voice is a hiss.

Bruce takes a step back. "No," he says calmly. He's very good at saying this calmly. Inside, he's a mass of white fury, all tangled up with the Hulk.

"There is nothing good in you," Loki presses. "Except maybe, just maybe, if you let that monster out. He can at least _fuck_ people."

Bruce grits his teeth. He can feel the weird line between his anger and the other kind slipping. "I can fuck people," he says as evenly as he can, even though it's not the point.

"Prove it," Loki says.

Bruce didn't exactly expect that. "No?" It comes out as a question by accident.

"Prove to me that you can live a whole life," Loki says, and that's a horrible pleading note in his voice. "Prove to me you're worth something without the monsters."

"Oh," Bruce says.

~

"He only said yes out of pity," Loki says bitterly. "But yes. He can fuck. He's a very angry man."

Nick is silent for a long moment. Then he says, "Nobody's gonna want you."

"Ha," Loki says weakly. "No. Maybe not. But they all did, for long enough."

Nick wrinkles his nose. "So what's the point of all this? What're you trying to prove?"

"I'm trying to prove that you're all weak," Loki says. "And this, Director, will be your downfall. That's the other thing I want. Your failure."

"Not today," Nick says. He steps reaches into the pocket for the remote control. Before Loki can react--and he's slow to react, probably on purpose--Nick presses the button that will get him out of here. The door shuts and Loki takes a few half-hearted steps toward it.

He throws his hands in the air, smiling that miserable smile. "You've got me. Fucked and trapped. Well done indeed. Better than all the others put together. Go on, then. Find your _common thread_."

Nick turns on his heel and goes back to his private quarters.

There, he starts up the security tape from the past few days. He starts combing through until he finds the part where Steve enters the room for the first time.

~

_"There's a lever, just there," Loki says, smiling._

_"Good," Steve says. "Now I know what to do if I ever want to get in there and wring your neck."_

_Without another word, he turns and leaves the room._

_~_

_"But you know what, I don't care," Clint continues, his eyes still a little glassy. "I'd rather be fucking celibate than forget to hate you."_

_Loki recoils. "I could make you--" She chokes on the words. "Never mind. Don't you have work to do?"_

_~_

_"I promise," Loki says._

_"Don't make promises you can't keep," Natasha says flatly. "You'll make a sound. You'll scream. When I finally finish with you, you will. And our clothing will stay on."_

_~_

_"You offer only bad choices," Thor says ruefully. "Do you not think, brother, that I will try to find a better one? You have ever been short-sighted in these matters."_

_"I know how lost I am," Loki snarls, but Thor is already walking away._

_~_

_Tony looks at him. "Rogers? Wait, you--You think I have a thing for _Steve_? Listen, I _know_ how nuts I'd have to be to go for him."_

_"I thought--"_

_"You thought wrong. Look, is this the part where I say, 'I know you are, but what am I?' If I'd try to fuck anyone here, it's Bruce. And it's not you. It won't ever be. We clear?"_

_~_

_"You must be so angry," Bruce says wonderingly. He steps away from the glass chamber. "I, wow. That's terrible. You have no idea how to handle yourself at _all_. I should really go."_

_His other half is roaring inside as he walks away._

~

Alone in his room, Nick curses under his breath. He has a half a mind to go back to Loki's cell and punch him in the face, but he doesn't like to think how that might play into Loki's plan. Loki didn't look like someone who was winning, but maybe it doesn't matter if Loki wins, as long as Nick loses.


End file.
